Something Warm and Soft
by TreeStar
Summary: ZoLu. It's cold at night and Luffy wants to snuggle with something warm when he goes to sleep, but his Chopper plan rather backfires. Now he has to convince a new warm person why he should be allowed to sleep with him. Features bedtime snuggles and fluff.


It's not a drabble because it ran too long to be one, but it's still pointless, fluffy shonen-ai. Zoro x Luffy. It's only the something from me for those who were _waiting_ for something from me while I start getting my butt in gear on RUMBLE's next part. I took a writting break sort of. Three weeks just reading things in the Fullmetal Alchemist section. I'm desperate to get a good AU idea with a complex plot for that fandom just so that I can write the characters in my own way. And then the second season of Veronica Mars came out on DVD and that was another distraction for me. But I do realize many of you are waiting on RUMBLE. :) I haven't forgotten you.

**Something Warm and Soft**

"Chopper!"

Luffy walked up to the Aft deck, calling out for his furry little reindeer.

The sun was going down and the temperature was dropping fast. These two things clearly spelled out 'Bedtime' to the crew, but Luffy couldn't find his little doctor. He had a very specific reason for wanting to find him before he went to sleep.

OOO! There was Zoro!

For lack of a better place to look that he could think of, Luffy meandered over to where Zoro was sleeping propped against the rail.

"Chopper!" he called out again.

When he got to answer, he knelt down by Zoro and pulled away his Haramaki and peeked inside. "Chopper?"

Zoro, who hadn't really been sleeping since Luffy had wandered up to him calling out loud, sweat dropped. What the hell was Luffy looking for in his haramaki?

Luffy let the haramaki snap back. Chopper wasn't in there…

He looped his finger into Zoro's pants and pulled them out. "Chopp- OW!"

"What the hell are you doing, Luffy?" Zoro raged, his hand still in the fist he'd used to whack his captain on the head with.

"Ow…" Luffy was whining. "That hurt, Zoro!"

"Then don't do that again!"

"But Chopper--!" he trailed off, not knowing how to convey his feelings that the reindeer COULD have been in Zoro's pants, and how could he know for sure if he didn't check?

Sanji, who'd just witnessed the whole scene, walked over laughing his ass off. He plonked himself down next to Zoro and slung an arm around his shoulder, much to Zoro's chagrin.

"Luffy, describe Chopper to us."

Luffy was a little thrown by the odd request for a moment, but then obliged happily. "He's cute and fuzzy and warm and soft and just perfect for sleeping with. When I go to bed, I want him to sleep in my hammock because he's gonna keep me warm when it gets cold tonight."

Sanji nodded, barely able to contain his laughter as he said, "And could anything like what you just described POSSIBLY be in Zoro's pants?"

Zoro turned bright red with unadulterated embarrassment.

Luffy thought for a moment.

"No."

He turned and abruptly walked off Aft, calling for his doctor anew as Zoro drew his swords and Sanji tried to get up and double over in laughter at the same time.

"Chopper!"

"What is it Luffy?" the tiny voice sounded down from the Crow's Nest.

"Ah! There you are! Let's go to bed together, come on!"

------------------------

It was dark and the hull was filled with sleep mumbling and light snoring when Chopper had his nightmare.

He and Luffy were sleeping in the gently swaying hammock together when something tried to eat him in his dream and he sent it an instinctive kick, in hopes to send it flying.

In the bedroom, Luffy woke sharply as Chopper kicked him out of the hammock and onto the floor with the thud.

Opening his eyes blearily, he looked up at his bed to find his doctor rolling around a little, performing various half-cocked ninja moves on his pillow.

Luffy groaned sleepily. He wouldn't be going to sleep back up there again tonight…

But it was too cold to sleep on the floor.

He looked around for a place to crash, but Usopp was sprawled across two hammocks because Chopper's had been empty, and Sanji would kill him for going up there. There was a reason he had chosen the highest hammock so long ago; to keep anyone from bumping him or knocking him out.

It also kept anyone from sleepwalking into bed with him, as Luffy was (according to everyone else) very apt to do in the middle of the night. Everyone on the ship had a story to tell about that. Luffy still wasn't sure he really did it, but there was really no other explanation he could think of for the uncountable number of times he'd been woken in the middle of the night by another crewmember that was demanding he sleep in his OWN hammock for a change.

Well, MOST of them were like that. But not Zoro.

Luffy knew this because every time he woke up in Zoro's bed, it was morning and the swordsman was either still sleeping or waiting for Luffy to wake up on his own before moving.

And speaking of Zoro, there he was, sleeping with that whole couch all to himself. Zoro was warm and comfy, and he would let Luffy stay with him maybe. Or Luffy could just pretend to sleepwalk over and snuggle with him…

Without another thought, the small pirate pulled himself up and lazily stumbled over to the couch.

Zoro woke with a start as a heavy weight suddenly flopped onto his middle and proceeded to snuggle and curl around him. Realizing what was happening, he propped himself up a little to wait for the unconscious boy to stop moving, and then started to pull him up higher and get into a position they could actually both manage to sleep in.

That was when he realized something was off.

"Luffy, what's wrong?"

Luffy didn't move.

Zoro sighed and shifted the smaller boy so that if he was going to be laid on, at least it would be comfortable. Luffy didn't help at all, and Zoro was starting to wonder how he was sleeping through all this shifting. It was troublesome and a little odd. Luffy usually curled right into position when he sleepwalked into Zoro's bed. He'd certainly never flopped over his first mate all boneless and half off the couch. Subconsciously, Luffy knew how he wanted to lie, and this wasn't his regularly-assumed position. Which was why Zoro couldn't get over how something was wrong with this picture.

"Luffy, it's gotta be somewhere around three in the morning. I don't want to play games right now."

No response. Sigh.

Once Luffy's head was on his shoulder and their feet were all together at the opposite end of the couch, Zoro tried again. "Okay, Luffy, what's up?"

Luffy made a little sound and snuggled closer, making Zoro blush a little. If Luffy really was awake, then this behavior was unacceptable…for some reason that Zoro couldn't remember as soon as Luffy was situated very comfortably over his person.

There was no way that Luffy was actually up, then, or this wouldn't be happening. Okay, then. In that case…

Zoro reached down to knock off Luffy's sandals. Who slept wearing their shoes to bed overnight? Honestly.

As Zoro bent up Luffy's knee to slide the sandal off one foot, his finger grazed over the soft sole and Luffy squeaked.

…Uh-huh.

"Luffy, I know you're awake."

Well, that was just cheating, Luffy thought. After all, he hadn't been prepared for something like THAT! How unfair!

Zoro possibly wouldn't love this arrangement so much, now, but maybe if he asked reeaally nicely… He really didn't want to sleep on the floor.

The heap in Zoro's arms shifted as Luffy dropped his act. And then a whisper came, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Zoro frowned, keeping his own voice quiet. "I thought you wanted to sleep with something warm and soft."

"You're warm and soft." It was almost adorable how much like a baby brother Luffy sounded. If he hadn't known perfectly otherwise, Zoro'd have guessed that Luffy was just as innocent and helpless as his act portrayed him as.

"That's not what you said earlier."

Luffy made a sound suspiciously like a snort of laughter as the memory, which made Zoro feel indignant. "Did not. You made that up."

"You did so."

"Nope. All I said was that Chopper wasn't smuggling below your belt."

Zoro opened his mouth to protest again, then realized that he was right. At least, it could be construed that way. Zoro's argument died before he could even figure out what it would have been.

At the lack of response, Luffy snuggled in close again. "…warm Zoro." For some reason this trump card always worked with Zoro. Luffy had his suspicions as to why, but he could play ignorant until Zoro had figured out what he wanted their next step to be (and he knew they would definitely be taking it together when the time came).

Zoro realized he'd lost his only real ammo and Luffy had somehow snuck under his defenses. He didn't really have any reason to not let Luffy stay there except that eventually his captain was bound to clue in as to why Zoro usually acted like all this was okay. That's where things became scary in Zoro's mind: while he was sure Luffy would know exactly how to handle a situation like that, Zoro would be at a loss for what to do next. It was a confusing thing to be afraid of, especially since Luffy was his captain and he should be perfectly comfortable with following his lead - but it was a known fact that Luffy was much better with emotions than Zoro was.

He quickly started to build up a new argument when, to further his cause, his captain decided to persecute any sleeping place that was not with Zoro. "The floor is hard and cold, and Chopper kicked me and Usopp declares war in his sleep and Sanji once groped me and Zoro is comfy and I wanna stay here. Okay, Zoro?"

He'd had Zoro at the Sanji part, but even before that, God help him, Zoro somehow found the little pout fest endearing. Still, he couldn't bring himself to just give verbal permission for any such thing because he was pretty sure that no matter how he tried to say it, his answer would come out sounding colder (or warmer) than he would mean for it to.

Luffy was starting to suspect that Zoro had just fallen asleep again despite his tense posture. Zoro was certainly apt to do such a thing. But he wasn't going to repeat himself. He was sure that if Zoro was awake, he'd heard, and if he was asleep, it didn't matter anymore.

Then Zoro was moving, sliding off his other sandal. Luffy pushed himself up a little curiously. "Zoro?"

A hand pulled him back down to lie against his first mate's form, and then Zoro tugged the blanket off the back of the couch that it had been flung over, unused tonight before now. The fabric settled over the pair, and Luffy smiled and sighed. If this wasn't 'Zoroian' for "I want to sleep with you, too" then nothing was.

He snuggled his face into Zoro's shoulder and made a happy sound of contentment. When he felt Zoro chuckle and give him a little squeeze back, Luffy knew what he was being indirectly told, and decided officially that since Zoro had just agreed, then this would be his new favorite place to sleep from now on, too.

**End.**


End file.
